Alabama's PLAN 2020 replaces No Child Left Behind for measuring the success of schools

2013-06-21T21:08:10Z2013-06-21T21:08:10Z

MONTGOMERY, AL (WTVM) -

OnFriday, June 21, the United States Department of Education (USDE) grantedAlabama's waiverrequest to be removed from many of the requirements of the No Child LeftBehind Act of 2001 (NCLB) and instead use the Alabama-specific PLAN 2020 asthe state's method of measuring public school achievement.

As manyas 46 states have submitted waivers to the USDE that would excuse them fromoperating under many outdated requirements of NCLB. Waiver requests in 37other states have already been approved.

Dr.Tommy Bice, State Superintendent of Education, said the original intent of NCLBwas a good place to start, however, the rigid "all-or-nothing" expectations ofNCLB's Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) did not give hard-working schools creditfor the growth they experienced.

Bicesaid PLAN 2020 continues to look at the academic progress of all studentsubgroups, but goes much farther to help schools meet their individual needs.

"PLAN2020 is a rigorous and comprehensive Alabama-developed plan designed to improveeducational outcomes for all students, close achievement gaps, increase equity,and improve the quality of instruction," Bice said. "The waiver from NCLB isjust one part of the overall PLAN 2020 approach. Ultimately, whatwill result is a system that uses the college- and career-readiness of itsgraduates as its capstone measure of success."

Dr.Melinda Maddox, Assistant State Superintendent of Education for Research,Information, and Data Services, said the portion of PLAN 2020 that measuresstudent performance is far more informative than AYP was in terms of trulyidentifying weaknesses in educational progress, addressing specific needs, andrecognizing the areas in which schools and students are trulyprogressing.

Maddoxsaid, "We are focused on closing achievement gaps, increasing graduation rates,moving students to proficiency, and making sure our graduates are prepared forcollege and/or a career without remediation. We now have a plan for ourstate to guide us to this new goal."